I also saw that Ben Simmons and Mike Scott, who were dealing with upper respiratory infections, would be available. This season, it seems like way too many Sixers have had upper respiratory infections – what exactly is going on? Can we get this team a dehumidifier or something, please?

Once I got to the stadium and met up with my dad & Jim, we grabbed some food from Shake Shack and then found my cousin Nicole, her husband Joe, and son Joe Jr. to hang out as a group before the game. It’s always nice to catch up with family – Jim & Joe Jr. even got to play pop-a-shot:

My brother & cousin face-off in pop-a-shot!

RJ arrived close to tip-off, so I met him at the gate near our section and handed him his ticket. By the way, I highly recommend this method of ticket transferal if you’re meeting someone at the stadium: since there’s some space between security and ticket-scan, you can have whoever you’re meeting clear security and then hand them their ticket to gain entry to the stadium. It’s quite easy. This might seem obvious to some, but not everyone does this, and it can save a lot of time/hassle of trying to coordinate ahead of time, standing outside the stadium at some weird meet-up point, or using will-call, etc. The more you know!

As we took our seats, we wondered if Corey Brewer (now a Sacramento King) would pull any antics. I’ll be honest – I really miss his nonsense and sort of wish we still had him.

Local singer Joy Hargaust sang the anthem and RETURNING PHILADELPHIA EAGLE DESEAN JACKSON (!!) RANG THE BELL! DeSean got an extremely warm welcome from the crowd – I’m THRILLED to have him back in Philly!

First Quarter:

The Sixers started out pretty strong and won the opening quarter 33-29. What stood out to me early was Embiid’s energy and the strong bench play. Embiid came out hot and had a bounce to him – and put it to use on some nice jams:

The first gimmick happened fairly early, around the 8-minute mark, and was the Old City Dancers. As you may have guessed, this is just a bunch of old people dancing – which is very fun and always gets laughs!

Redick got off to a slow start offensively, despite getting some decent looks. He ended up 4-9 from 3pt, but the early dry spell really made me question if he should still be a starter come playoff time. I really believe against deep and athletic teams like the Celtics, Raptors, and Bucks that Redick becomes borderline unplayable, as he’s too much of a liability on defense.

To that point about Redick, I’m more curious if Brett Brown will start to play around around with a starting (or at least crunch-time) lineup of Simmons-Butler-Ennis-Harris-Embiid. Doing so helps in a few ways – for one, it allows Butler to play his natural position of shooting guard, but also makes Harris (who is a decent defender) our “weakest link” on defense, which is a favorable proposition. Separately, limited minutes for Redick might maximize his energy when on the court and help his shooting percentage. Given that the Sixers have 13 games left, I’m curious to see how Brett Brown tests out different lineups to see “what he has” come playoff time.

Second Quarter:

The Sixers tied this quarter 29-29 and maintained their 4 pt lead through halftime. It wasn’t a particularly well played quarter – the offense was stagnant at times. However, Jimmy Butler started to make a noticeable impact this quarter and would go on to lead the team with 22 pts (and a +20 +/-). He is VERY good at getting fouled (and strong enough to finish crazy plays):

The Chick-Fil-A Parachute drop, which is the thing where chicken sandwiches rain from the sky, happened between quarters. As per usual, my section (which is in a bit of a dead spot for where the sandwiches are dropped from) missed out.

There was a “shoot for your season” as well, but nobody hit the half court shot. In fact, there were many people not taking running starts and leaving the ball comically short. These people don’t deserve to shoot for their season whatsoever – if you’re going to treat a half-court shot like a foul-shot, you had better have the strength to get the ball to the basket. Otherwise, you look like a big dweeb.

Seriously, I have no idea why he’s so good at this. It’s the exact sort of high-energy play you want from a bench player, and the one he pulled off this quarter took a tie game where the opponent had the ball and turned into a 3pt advantage. TJ remains a gamer.

The “Cap Race” gimmick (sponsored by New Era) happened this quarter. I’m sick of all of these sponsored gimmicks – it’s been months without a Carlton Cam, and unless the Alfonso Ribeiro foundation wants to sponsor it, we may never see it again. Enough pre-determined videos – give me something fun and for the people!

Other 3rd quarter observations:

Kings guard De’Aaron Fox was sporting what I call the “Dread Pirate Roberts” bandana for most of the game. Jimmy Butler has worn this a few times, as have many other players in the league. The weird thing about this look is it’s pretty new to the NBA this year – I don’t think I’ve ever noticed it in prior years. While I have no idea where it came from, I’m a big fan of this look, as well as most weird accessories for athletes.

As far as gimmicks go, the most interesting one this quarter was the skills challenge relay. Two groups of fans again put up stellar times of 15.9 sec and 14.8 respectively on a weave-around defenders, pass through a target, hand-off to teammate, weave-around defenders, make a layup. Sign them up!

The “Price is Right” gimmick occurred this quarter as well. As usual, it was not that much fun and a poor advertisement for Shop-Rite.

There was also a successful proposal this quarter – congrats to the happy couple!

Dan is joined once again by PFO’s own Jason Blevins to discuss the huge win over Milwaukee. They also discuss Ben Simmons competitive nature, how tight the rotations may get come the playoffs, and discuss...

On Sunday, the 76ers traveled to Milwaukee to take on the league leading Bucks for the marquee matchup in the NBA’s weekend schedule. The Sixers were able to withstand a 52 point pummeling from Giannis...